This week’s theme is favorite first sentences! It was actually a little harder for me to pick these since it has to be the first sentence and not ANY sentence. I found that don’t like too many of the first sentences in books, they really have to grab my attention for them to stand out.

5.) “So here’s the file that almost killed me, Director”

– Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

I don’t really know why this is a favorite of mine but I think it’s humorous as well as really attention grabbing! WHY did this file almost kill you? Tell me! Must read more! I’m a sucker for these sentences that hook you right away.

August is Harry Potter month! Check out this month’s discussions on the Hype or Like Friday’s Goodreads page!

Today’s discussion topic is: If you could choose 3 magical items from any Harry Potter book, which would you choose and why? Explain what you would do with them and how you would use them to your advantage.

This is my first Hype or Like Friday post so bear with me!

1.) A Wand

I know this isn’t very creative or thoughtful but come on it’s a wand! You can do pretty much everything with a wand! I would use a wand for lazy things like shutting lights off, cooking, cleaning, or getting the remote after I’ve sat down. Those things are pretty advantageous right?

2.) A Broomstick

Once again I’m not exactly breaking the mold here but flying on a broomstick would be amazing! I would probably use it to fly to work and pretty much fly anywhere I’d need to go, there isn’t exactly a lot of broom traffic……so that’d be quite the advantage of a broomstick right there.

3.) A Pensieve

I think out of all the magical items and trinkets that a pensieve would prove to be one of the most useful and potentially the most fun. I would use mine to store all of my best memories and relive them, how does that not sound fun? If I needed to remember something particularly important then the pensieve would come in handy then as well!

What are some of your favorite magical items from Harry Potter?

What would you use them for?

Let me know in the comments and feel free to link up your Hype or Like Friday as well!

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

**** Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!****

It’s official….Jay Kristoff cannot disappoint me.

This book has everything! Deadly assassins, a badass heroine, plot twists galore, magical shadow creatures, and some fantastic world building! Plus it’s a story all about revenge and who doesn’t love that? Honestly, “Nevernight” is perfection.

Getting into “Nevernight” took me a while and it took me longer still to actually finish it, I felt like I was flung into Kristoff’s world without any information whatsoever and therefore it took some time for me to get a handle on the whos, whats, whens, wheres, and whys. Don’t worry though we do get provided with plenty of information after a bit and after that it was smooth sailing! So I will say that “Nevernight” takes some patience at first but is ultimately very worth it!

There also seems to have been a lot of debate about what genre this book actually is, some say it’s YA but others say it’s Adult because of the graphic violence and sex scenes. I, however, think it’s a hybrid of both. The main character, Mia, is very much a young adult but the plot has elements that most people would consider adult. So I will say if you’re not comfortable with detailed scenes of sex and violence as well as plenty of profanity then maybe this isn’t for you!

“Nevernight”, to put it simply, is all about revenge. Mia wants revenge against the people who killed her family and becoming a deadly assassin is how she plans on doing it. I love a good revenge tale and this book nails it, you can really get behind Mia’s motives and root her on. I wanted Mia to succeed in her schemes to destroy her enemies so desperately, I really felt her loss and wanted her to get her vengeance.

Another aspect of the plot I really enjoyed was the “school” setting, Jay Kristoff really meant it when he said it’s like Hogwarts but instead of being filled with witches and wizards it’s full of vicious killers. Here they learn how to become more skilled with weaponry, poisons, theft, and even secrets. Mia and her peers are tested constantly with their instructors actually trying to kill them to see who has the necessary skills to make it as an assassin. It is intense!

The plot is also filled with insane twists and turns, I did NOT see that ending coming whatsoever! The entire story is action-packed but that ending went at break neck speed, in my opinion, I was screaming in rage and loved every second of it and I absolutely adored Kristoff’s shock factor there!

I also noticed a lot of people have mentioned in their reviews that they hated the writing style in this book and while it is very different from what most of us normally read, I really enjoyed it. Kristoff’s writing is loaded with metaphors and similes making it very lyrical and fun to read. I didn’t find it too elaborate in the least bit. I also really loved the inclusion of footnotes throughout the story they added so much humor as well as background to the world Kristoff built.

Speaking of the world building…..definitely no disappointment there. The world in which “Nevernight” is set is based a lot on Ancient Rome as well as Venice which is apparent from the titles given to certain characters such as Consul Scaeva and Justicus Remus and the many canals that run through the city, a lot of the character names are Italian as well. There is also quite a bit of information provided on the gods and religions of this world as well as bits of magic and “mythical” beasts. Fantasy at it’s finest.

Mia Corvere is a badass to put it simply and the kind of heroine I wish were in every book I read. She’s flawed, strong, fierce, clever, and absolutely unwavering in her determination to take down the people who destroyed her family. She also has a really cool ability – she’s able to manipulate and even speak with shadows. Mia is also the opposite of all talk and no action, she’s a deadly killer and will do whatever it takes to get her revenge. I loved how we got a heroine who actually kills people and is great at it, unlike the very popular Celaena Sardothien from the Throne of Glass series.

We also see quite a few flashbacks to Mia’s past which slowly reveal what really drives her down this path of vengeance. I loved getting this background and insight into her character.

There’s also Tric, who is a sort of secondary protagonist as well as Mia’s love interest. I really enjoyed his character as well, he comes off as being sort of goofy and humorous but don’t make the mistake of underestimating him because he’s one of the most determined and deadliest people in the bunch.

The romance (if you can even really call it that) is definitely not overwhelming at all and very much secondary to both the plot and Mia. It was definitely enjoyable for what it was though, which is mostly sex with some confused feelings thrown in. Remember when I mentioned those very graphic sex scenes? Yep.

The secondary characters are all fantastic as well, they’re very well developed, complex, and add a lot more depth to the story. From the other students to the instructors to the corrupted men in charge of the Republic, I loved so many of them and loved to hate some others. If there’s anything I love in a fantasy book it’s well done secondary characters and “Nevernight” definitely has them!

“Nevernight” is an amazing book full of action, twists and turns, fantastic world building, great writing, and even greater characters. I definitely was not disappointed and very much look forward to the next book in the series or anything else Jay Kristoff writes for that matter!

Do you want to read an amazing book? Then yes I highly recommend “Nevernight”! If you want a deadly assassin as a heroine who actually kills people or a story fueled by revenge and betrayals then this is for you! However, I will once again warn any of you who are not fans of graphic violence, graphic sex scenes, or large amounts of profanity may want to steer clear!

Also if you’re interested in reading something by Jay Kristoff but may not necessarily want to read “Nevernight” or you’ve already read “Nevernight” and are looking for more of this author’s amazing work then definitely check out “Stormdancer” and “Illuminae” which I will provide links to my reviews for!

This week’s theme is books you feel differently now that you’ve had time to think about them or have re-read them. It can be one you loved at first and then thought about how many problems it actually had or even a book you didn’t really like at first but thought about it more and ended up loving it!

I actually have more books I ended up not loving over time but there are a couple I upped the rating on after some more thought! I’ll link up reviews if I have them too!

5.) The Host by Stephenie Meyer

When I first read this book way back in 2008 I was crazy about it but over the years I realized it wasn’t THAT great. Don’t get me wrong it’s still a good book and I still liked it but thinking about it now it had more problems than I originally thought, such as that really annoying love triangle (quadrangle?). I went from a 4-5 star rating down to a 3 in the end.

4.) The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

So obviously this was super popular back in the day and I read all of them thinking they were decent, mostly because EVERYONE was reading them though. Peer pressure. But nowadays I wonder why I even bothered? That love triangle was really atrocious. One to two star ratings.

3.) The House of Night Series by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

I read all of these but the last three and my question to myself is “Why”? I just kept reading them and really have no idea why since, in my opinion, they’re awful. So I went from enjoying them when I was younger to thinking they’re a total waste of time. One star rating for all of them I read.

2.) With Malice by Eileen Cook

I really loved this book and originally gave it a 3/3.5 star rating since it wasn’t a perfect book but after some more thought I realized I liked way more than that and bumped it up to a 4 star rating.

This week’s theme is pretty self explanatory, what books would I buy with an unlimited amount of free money? Well normally I could go insane but I think at this point it may be tricky since I recently bought a ton of books that I really wanted…..so I’ll have to do some thinking for this one!

10.) The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Okay so I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about this book but I’m still really interested in it because of the blurb. So if I’m being GIVEN money then I’d definitely go buy this just to check it out and see if it’s actually any good or not.

9.) The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Just because the library’s copy is almost always checked out and I want my own copy. That is all.

So this month was great as far as reading went but pretty dang awful as far as posts! In my defense though I’ve been going to the lake where I have absolutely zero reception and summer is always a busy time since there’s loads of fun stuff to go do!

Now that it’s August I’m going to try my hardest to get my posting back on track since it will be my one year blogiversary! I really can’t believe it’s already going to be a year since I started book blogging but there will be separate posts about that for sure so for now let’s get this wrap up started!

Books Read This Month: 8

I have yet to review any of these books ( I know, shame on me) and therefore don’t have an official rating on them because my thoughts aren’t really settled on a few. However, since “Nevernight” will be released in one week my review will be up sometime this week so be on the look out!